140 FALCONlDyE. 



of the changes caused by the reclaiming of that extensive 

 district, continued to breed there later than the others, there 

 seems to be no county in the British Islands where Mon- 

 tagu's Harrier may now be said to breed regularly. Accord- 

 ing to Mr. More, its nest was until the last few years, or, 

 may be, still is occasionally found in Somerset, Dorset, Pem- 

 brokeshire, Kent and Norfolk. At Hickling, in the county 

 last named, four young birds, which in Mr. Stevenson's 

 opinion had been bred in the neighbourhood, were killed in 

 August, 1870. Of the other English counties, such as 

 Devon (where Montagu first found it breeding), Suffolk, 

 Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, Shropshire, Cumberland 

 and Northumberland, in all of which there is more or less 

 satisfactory evidence of its nests having formerly been found, 

 none have been recorded for several years past, and the 

 species bids fair shortly to become no longer indigenous, 

 though Mr. J. H. Gurney, Junior, reports the capture, during 

 the present summer (1871), of a pair, with their nestling 

 young, near Bridlington in Yorkshire. Already in some of 

 the counties where it used to be so abundant, it must now be 

 regarded as an irregular autumnal migrant. 



Montagu's Harrier has been met with in Scotland, but is 

 of rare occurrence and has been only noticed there of late 

 years. The report of its having bred in Sutherland, made 

 by two writers, but apparently resting on the same authority, 

 seems to require confirmation. Mr. Eobert Gray, however, 

 mentions a specimen now in the collection of Mr. E. S. 

 Sinclair of Wick and said to have been shot in Caithness, 

 which is probably the most northern locality on record for 

 this species. In Ireland as we learn from Mr. Watters it 

 has only occurred in two instances, once near Bray and once 

 at the Scalp in the county of Wicklow. 



According to the best authorities Montagu's Harrier is, 

 or was, a common bird in Belgium and Holland where it 

 breeds. In the western parts of North Germany it seldom 

 occurs though Dr. Borggreve states that it certainly breeds 

 in Mecklenburg and Anhalt, but Gloger reports it as being 

 commoner in Silesia. From the Scandinavian ornithologists 



